The usage of mobile communication devices, such as mobile phones, has become ubiquitous. In fact, it is estimated that roughly 50% of the US population uses a smart phone. Mobile communication devices have a large drawback, in that they rely on a fixed network infrastructure of cellular towers, wireless routers, and other devices to operate. Consequently, these mobile communications device may be inoperative in the event that the infrastructure is unavailable, such as during a power outage or a natural disaster.
One method that has been proposed to overcome this shortcoming is the use of Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks (MANETs). These MANETs utilize a multi-hop network in which a mobile communications device communicates with one or more of its neighbors, which then forward the information until it reaches the desired destination. However, MANETs may not robustly handle intermittency, delays or service disruptions. In order to overcome these issues, it has been shown that a MANET may be overlaid with a Delay Tolerant Network (DTN).
In the event of a disaster, a user may wish to send a message to a specific destination, such as a message asking about the status of another person. However, in other cases, the user simply wants to request information for others to consume or seek information that others have produced. For example, a trapped or isolated user may want anyone in the area to receive their plea for help.
These two scenarios give rise to two different paradigms; host-centric communications and content-centric communications. Host-centric communications are communications in which the sender knows the address of the destination, such as a telephone number or IP address, and includes that destination address in the communication. In content-centric communications, the publisher/producer of content tags the information with a set of attributes, and disseminates it to the network. The subscribers in the network that are interested in those attributes consume the information.
It would be beneficial, especially during disaster responses, to have delay tolerant MANETs that are capable of handling both host-centric and content-centric communications and that can operate on easily available mobile devices, such as smart phones.